Help Lake Forest Park's CORE, "Citizens Organized to Rethink Expansion of 522 in Lake Forest Park."

CORE is a non-profit 401(c)(4) charity formed by residents. Their goal is to raise awareness among all residents of Lake Forest Park concerning Sound Transit's plans and to advocate for a less destructive design for bus rapid transit through Lake Forest Park that still provides meaningful value to bus transit riders. Please help carry their message to all residents of Lake Forest Park by donating to their cause. When you click the link below, you will go to CORE's website, where you can safely and securely contribute using various payment options. https://www.lfpcore.org/donate-now

CORE supports Mass Transit, Sound Transit, and S-3/BRT. However, CORE does not support the specific roadway design planned for Lake Forest Park when other far less costly roadway designs can be used that still deliver value to bus transit riders passing through Lake Forest Park.

Sound Transit's current roadway design deeply harms LFP's environment, tree canopy, and economy. Instead, CORE advocates a roadway design identical to Sound Transit’s roadway design on 145th from the South Shoreline Light Rail station to Bothell Way. This roadway design provides over 60% of the 15.7 minutes of reduced bus transit time from the South Shoreline Light rail link station to Bothell/UW campus during the weekday afternoon rush hour achieved without building dedicated bus lanes.

Why is your donation so important? First, sound Transit plans to build a dedicated bus lane northbound on Bothell Way from 145th to the Town Center means over 110 homeowners must surrender some or all their property; 450 trees must be cut down and replaced with an 8-to-16-foot concrete retaining wall three football fields long on the west side of Bothell Way. It means traffic delays caused by the 18–24-month construction project will push commuters onto our local streets, past our schools. It means hauling 95,000 tons of dirt and debris in and out of Lake Forest Park, requiring some 4,000 trips by industrial dump trucks. It means homes adjacent to Bothell Way will have increased traffic noise, negatively impacting the value of their homes. And with the likely staging of construction materials and equipment at our Town Center, local businesses there and on Bothell Way will lose customers and revenue, reducing the sales tax revenue Lake Forest Park depends on to fund essential services and maintenance.

CORE can only achieve their goal with your financial support. So please, consider donating to CORE's cause. You can also learn more about CORE and Sound Transit plans at their website: lfpcore.org.

More info from Vicki Vickiscuri:

I just realized there is a Wall Ordinance Meeting tonight, at City Hall, 6pm. I am attaching a copy of the ordinance for you. I added some markups. The decision making process is primarily with the Director of Public Works. While this version is better than the last one, it leaves a lot to be desired.
An engineering perspective is biased in most if not all decisions. Also, who is the “Qualified Professional” who may advise the Director of Public Works? This is vaguely written and it does not specify experience or related qualifications of this professional to the subject (it could be anyone). Also, this ordinance does not address the actual conditions of the ST3 walls, imposed by Sound Transit on LFP. The most significant walls to be built in LFP largely fall outside of the scope of this ordinance, as there is no space for planting adjacent to the walls. (The pocket idea seems very sketchy, more political than real or environmental.)

Also, ST3’s noise report issued along with the SEPA documents that have been approved, minimize noise pollution by taking samples that are now irrelevant to this project. While the wall ordinance may improve future projects, it does little to affect this massive Public Works Project by ST3, that will be built without the consideration of noise pollution. Correct me if I am wrong on this, but with levels previously calculated at a 1 decibel increase, why does ST3 have to do anything more? We know these measurements are grossly underestimated. Does this wall ordinance capture this loophole? If anyone understands this better than I do, please clarify this point. This ordinance may be better for future projects, but how about this current ST3 Project?

I plan to attend the meeting tonight at 6pm to hear what the Council has to say. I hope to see some of you there.